


Unanswered Prayers

by captainamergirl



Category: Original Work
Genre: Based on Song, F/M, One Shot, not fan fiction at all, original - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:15:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27079435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captainamergirl/pseuds/captainamergirl
Summary: A one-shot based on the song by Garth Brooks.





	Unanswered Prayers

He spotted her almost immediately, noted the way the bright stadium lights danced on the highlights in her halo of white-blonde hair. His lips pursed in a little smile. _Well, well. Lindsay Trainor._ It had been well over ten years since he had last seen her, but he thought that he would know her anywhere. He had spent every night of his teen years on his knees, begging a God he didn’t quite believe in for the chance to know her, to date her, and to be loved by her.  
  
A tug on his right hand reminded him that he wasn’t alone. “What are you staring at?” His wife asked. She followed his gaze, straight to Lindsay who chatted up the concession stand worker -- a pubescent boy with noticeably pockmarked skin. “Or should I say, _whom?”_  
  
Paul looked over at his wife. His smile grew larger. Damn, but Erin was beautiful - blonde like Lindsay, but her hair honeyed like the color of wheat. Her eyes were soft pools of cornflower-blue. There was no ire or jealousy in her gaze; he was happy to note. She knew who she was to him and she was secure in his feelings for her.  
  
“Come on. I’ll introduce you to my old friend, Lindsay,” he said, and gently pulled her forward. Curiosity about who Lindsay was now; who she had become, rather than a deep-seated, simmering attraction, was what drew him forward. Erin kept pace at his side. She was always at his side - his fondest companion; his best friend; _his love._ The one person who had never deserted him, even when he’d given her about a million reasons to do so.  
  
Lindsay turned as they approached. She clutched a box of nachos in one hand; a fountain drink in the other. She looked up at Paul as he came to a stop in front of her. She squinted at him for a moment, as if trying to make out exactly who he was and what he had meant to her. He was a little disappointed, if he were honest with himself. It was a male ego thing, he supposed. No red-blooded man, married or not, ever wanted to be forgotten by his first love, his first kiss, his first everything.  
  
 _“Paul?_ Wait - Paul Gordon?” Lindsay asked, almost tentatively. He traced her face with his gaze. She looked somewhat older than her thirty-one years - the skin around her eyes was lined and hooded; her complexion a bit sallow in color. She was still pretty enough. She just looked a little different than he had remembered.  
  
“Hey, Lindsay,” Paul said. He nodded his head. “Yes, it’s me.”  
  
“Wow,” Lindsay said softly. Her voice was a little hoarse as if she had a cold. Or maybe she had taken up smoking. “I can’t believe you’re back in town. I thought I'd never see you again after you went off to college - uh, where was it again?”  
  
“Oh, Brown.”  
  
“Right. Brown.” She shifted from foot to foot, as if not entirely comfortable with their run-in. “Well, you look good. I bet you made a success of yourself. You always were the smartest guy I knew.”  
  
“Thanks,” Paul said. “And you look good too. I bet you did some great things after college as well.”  
  
“Hardly,” Lindsay said. “Twice divorced, you know. Three kids before I was twenty-four…” She sighed quietly and focused her attention on Erin. “And you must be Paul’s … what, girlfriend? Wife?”  
  
“The latter,” Erin affirmed with a little smile. She was truly patient. Maybe a little more so than either Paul or Lindsay deserved. “So you're Lindsay, huh? Paul has told me a lot about you. In fact, on our first date I don’t think he _stopped_ talking about you.”  
  
“Oh, really?” Lindsay blushed. Her cheeks turned a soft shade of pink. "That’s… I don’t know what to say to that. I never knew I made that big of an impact on him.”  
  
Paul’s smile faltered a bit and he looked from Lindsay to Erin. Lindsay had been every dream he had ever dreamed way back when and she hadn’t even known it. She failed to realize it. Maybe he’d never meant very much to her.  
  
Erin squeezed his hand and he squeezed back, relishing the soft but firm grip of her fingers.  
  
Lindsay took a sip of her drink, as if she was stalling for time; searching for something to say, anything at all. She finally looked up at Paul again. “Hey, do you remember that time you got it into your head to steal West High’s mascot? God, how that pig squealed, right?”  
  
“Right …” But Paul didn’t remember. Because he’d never done that -- certainly not with her. She must have him mixed up with some other guy. Perhaps all those years ago when he finally thought he had caught her, he hadn’t really caught her at all.  
  
“That was fun. Good times,” Lindsay said. They all hemmed and hawed a bit after that. Paul was actually glad when the buzzer sounded and the sportscaster in the stadium box announced the first kick-off of the night.  
  
“Game’s starting,” Paul said needlessly. “We’d better go grab our seats.”  
  
“Yeah ... See you around, Paul… Maybe in another few years,” Lindsay said. She shrugged her shoulders at them and walked away. He watched her take a seat in the stands beside identical twin boys, probably close to middle school in age. They bickered and slapped at each other. He could almost swear that he heard Lindsay sigh in frustration.  
  
He and Erin took their seats. They had climbed all of the way to the nosebleeds section. He felt a little breathless at the height. He looked over at Erin. She clapped wildly as she shouted for the home team, The Spartans, to trample his alma mater’s long-standing rivals, The Lancers. She hadn’t even grown up in that town and she still cheered on the same side that he did.  
  
He watched Erin, saw the moonlight dancing in her eyes, the grin on her full lips. He found himself entranced all over again, the way he had been for so long. She was the real deal; the one-hundred-and-ten percent genuine article. He had spent years romanticizing his past with Lindsay. He had build it up in his mind to be something that it hadn’t ever really been, when all of the time he’d had the best woman at his side. Erin Gordon was the one. Make that, _The One._ He suddenly worried that he didn’t tell her that enough. That she didn’t really know how much she meant to him.  
  
“I love you,” he said. She turned and stared at him. She cupped her hands around her cute little pink ears.  
  
“I can’t hear you,” she said. The game had already moved into half-time. The school band had taken the field and hearing was difficult, if not impossible.  
  
He leaned closer, pressed his mouth to her warm left earlobe, and shouted, _"I love you, Erin Gordon!”_  
  
She grinned. “And what brought that on?” She shouted back at him.  
  
“I realized how lucky I am… No, _blessed._ I had all of these dreams and hopes as a teenager. And you know what, I’m so glad that I got new dreams and new hopes when I fell in love with you.”  
  
Erin’s blue eyes misted over. She looked half-ready to cry. Instead, she slipped her arms around his lean waist and pressed her bee-stung lips to his. They kissed for several minutes, or maybe seconds; he wasn’t sure. Time always fell away when he was with her.  
  
He did not pay much attention to the rest of the game after that. He instead reveled in the knowledge that Erin was his. He was grateful that all of his angst-ridden teenage prayers had amounted to naught.  
  
When the football sailed between the arms of the goal post for the final time that evening, he reached for Erin’s hand. He felt the softness of her skin, savored the familiar warmth of each of her fingers laced with his.  
  
“Let’s go home, baby,” he said.  
 ** _  
THE END._**


End file.
